His Girl
by too many stars to count
Summary: Family dinners just haven't been the same since Barbara's Aunt and cousin left. Written for the batfic contest theme of Family Dinners. please let me know what you think!


**A/N:** This is my first time writing any of the Gordons and I really enjoyed it. This was also written for the batfic_contest community at lj. Hopefully I'll find the inspiration to wirte these characters again soon. Anyone wondering where the hell chapter 9 of **The Ways We Hurt** is, I just started typing it (the chaptr itself is written in my notebook) and should hopefully have the chapter up iwthin a week. Please let me know what oyu htink of the story!

**His Girl**

Barbara Gordon hates "family dinners". She didn't used to. When Aunt Babs and Jimmy were still there they had been fun. Uncle Jim (Dad?) would come home from the office around 6 play with Jimmy, kiss "his girls" as he affectionately called both Barbaras, and they'd all sit down to a dinner filled with laughter and conversation.

Not anymore, not since Aunt Babs had left taking 3 year old Jimmy with her. They'd left the _state_, moving all the way out to Pittsburgh. Barbara the older had promised to stay in touch with her niece, but so far nothing. Just a phone call saying they'd arrived safely and were settling in.

Now Barbara was doing her best just to have dinner on the table before her Uncle got home. Not that she ever knew when that would be. It wasn't uncommon for him to be at the office until 8:30 or 9 these days. Barbara knew crime had spiked recently (Oh _boy_ did she know. She wasstill feeling a kick to her shin from Harley Quinn three days ago.) but she also suspected her – Uncle was trying to bury himself in the work.

Tonight's dinner was off to an okay start though. Jim had come home around 7:15, early nowadays, and Barbara had managed to cook a pork roast, some scalloped potatoes, and a pan of brownies without burning a thing. A feat to be celebrated after last weeks disaster with the meatloaf.

The first few weeks after her Aunt's departure dinner had been a near silent affair. Neither of them wanted to talk about what had happened nor could either of them think of anything else to talk about. Slowly but surely though normal conversation had resumed. Most of it was focused on Barbara, something she was uncomfortable with, but at least they were talking.

"So Babs," Jim looked up from his second helping of pork roast. "How's that job at the library been treating you?" Barbara worked full time at the library now, though her hours were often drastically different from week to week.

"It's okay." Barbara replied scooping up some potatoes. She was a little startled by his use of her nickname. He hadn't called her Babs since, well, she didn't want to think about it. "We hired a bunch of new people all of whom need training. Luckily none of them had anything to do with my department so I got off with just smiling and waving." She tentatively broached his own job. "How about you? Any closer to catching the leader of the Two-Facers?" Barbara knew the answer but she asked anyway.

Jim shook his head slowly. "We've been scouring the city but so far, no. I have a uhm –_special operative - _"

"You mean Batman." Barbara cut in. Her Batman obsession was a family legend so she wasn't worried about being direct. "Come on, the whole city knows you guys work together."

He inclined his head acknowledging her point. "Well, he promised to look into it for us. People rarely manage to slip past him so I have high hopes." Jim fixed her with a stare. "You were out pretty late last night sweetie. Were you with friends?"

Barbara experienced a terrifying moment's panic that her Uncle _knew_ she'd been swinging around on jump lines all night trying to hunt down the head of the Two-Facers herself. When she realized what he really suspected she could have laughed.

"No I wasn't with boys." She said allowing herself a small giggle. "I went to the do-jo for a quick evening class and then back to the library so I could try to catch up on my filing. It's getting out of control, even if I _don't_ have to train new people. We got new books along with new people. They all have to be catalogued and I'm the only person assigned to the job."

It wasn't a total lie she rationed in her head. She _had_ gone back to the library. Just for crime research, not filing. And it _was_ her job to catalogue all the new books. Something she had finished doing yesterday. Not that her boss, or her Uncle, needed to know about that.

"Do you want a brownie?" She asked rising to get the plate off the counter. Chocolate brownies were great for deflecting attention. Handing her Uncle a brownie she grabbed on for herself and returned to the table.

They chatted innocently while Barbara kept her eye on the digital clock above the stove. The green numbers read 8:00 p.m. One hour until patrol started, and she needed Bruce to refill her utility belt at the cave.

She nonchalantly started to clear dishes off the table and piled them into the sink, gathering the leftovers as she went. Occasionally she'd hand washed them but tonight there was no time, they would just have to go in the dishwasher.

Jim also stood up. "That was a great dinner Babs. Thank you. I've got a few case files to look over tonight. Do you have plans?"

"I was gonna head up to the bookstore and browse for a while." She tried not to pause or stutter. They were the some of the easiest signs of nerves to detect. What was there to be nervous about anyway? She was just telling a massive lie to the one family member she had left. To be fair she had signed up for a life of lying. "Then I was gonna grab a cup of coffee and head to the library. I should be able to finish tonight if I work at it." Meaning tomorrow she'd need a _new_ alibi. Great. "It'll probably take me a couple of hours though. The computers have been acting really crazy lately and our main tech guy is on vacation."

"There's my girl. You always were a go-getter Babs." Barbara looked at her Uncle shocked. He was using her nickname _and_ calling her "his girl"? Was he finally starting to get over the pain of Aunt Babs leaving? She desperately hoped so. "Don't let them work you too hard though. Okay pumpkin?"

"Of course." She stood on tiptoe to kiss her Uncle – no her _father­_ - on the cheek before running upstairs to shove her uniform into her backpack.

'_Maybe family dinners aren't so bad after all.'_ She thought opening the door to her room.


End file.
